Feb 24th

Hey everybody! Well, okay. I really don't know what to tell you. I love you all and The End. he he. just kidding. But this week went by super fast! I don't know what to do with myself sometimes. Sometimes it feels like the next day is forever away and everything is happening so slow, but then each time we hit a mark it seems like the time in between was hardly there.

Okay, well yesterday I gave a talk in the spanish ward. I gave my talk and Sister Bettinson gave hers, and that was the whole program. kinda weird. I'm not sure how much of my talk people understood especially because I was trying to tell stories and my past tense isn't very good at all. But we had a family at church!!!!!! and that helped take the stress off of talking in church by a lot. But it was a very stressful sunday. First time I've ever had a family, so it was different trying to find all the diferent classes and worring about all the different places, if things are going well and if they're enjoying it etc. But it was super great!!

The family we actually found from knocking. We went to contact a lady that lived in an apt complex and then we decided to knock a few of the doors. And Sister Bettinson said that she wanted a knocking miracle so we were gonna knock one more door and we found the Lopez family! The dad is gone a lot working, and he comes back for a week about every two months. So there's the mom, and then the oldest child is the 13 yr old daughter, then 11 boy, 8 boy, 6 girl and 2 little boy. Everyone but the dad came to church yesterday, cause the dad was gone. The oldest girl is actually the most interested. When we first met them she actually took us aside to confide in us. She expressed some of the worries and struggles that she's dealing with right now and how she wants to turn to God more to help her out and she wants to change and be good. It was really cool! The fun thing about this mission, particularly this area, is that quite a bit of the families are very much bilingual. Usually the parents don't know any or very little english, but the kids, particularly the teenagers prefer english, so always talk to us in english, and the younger kids, particularly under six, speak spanish. Some of them may know or understand english but they prefer spanish. So it's pretty interesting. The problem is that it's super hard to not just fall into english. When someone talks to me in english my instinct is to respond in english, but we do our best to keep it in the language that everybody understands. So lessons are always super interesting. There is never only one language that goes on down here. You just use both.

But yup. That is really all I can think of. Well, we have more investigators now than I've ever had before, (which of course isn't hard to beat) but because of that I think I can sympathize with mom's excuse, that when there's so many people you're in charge of you forget things. So that's my excuse. There is so much that happens that's so fast that I can't remember any one thing ever.

So I'll just tell you whatever pops into my head.

We meet lots of interesting people here. And I have learned the smell of beer, it's disgusting. There are a bunch of crazy guys in our area that like to talk to us. There's one guy that showed us his "condo" that consisted of a couch underneath a tarp tied to a boat sitting in front of an apartment complex. And we see him quite a bit sitting in a chair somewhere along the main road, and he asks us why we don't come to see him.

We also get Mexico stories. And I have resolved that I don't want to cross the border on land, at any point in my life unless there is dramatic improvements in Mexico. I'll still definately go back to Mexico City, but not anywhere near the border. We also hear border crossing stories, it's pretty cool. And it's super expensive to cross the border.

Well, I can't think of any other random things.

I love you !

Hermana NJ Nielson

10 Feb. 2014

Okay, well, I don't think very well when it's time to write.

Well once upon a time I got a cough (I don't know how to spell it, I think its tos in spanish) but it was pretty dumb and so then it just kept going on and on and so every time we visit someone they notice that of course that I have a pretty bad cough. But The awesome spanish sisters like taking care of us. and I've now been given medicine 3 times there on the spot and been sent home with some three times and twice been given instructions to make an herbal tea. So no worries, I won't die of sickness here. :D
oh yes, and you don't complement them on anything they can give away or you'll get it. Earings, pencils etc. and if you mention anything about walking in the cold or wishing that you had more warm clothes, you'll get a ride home (especially if it's dark, and they'll make sure you go in your appartment) and coats and gloves etc.

Well the big thing in this area that we're stressing about is getting people to church because the majority of the people here don't have cars and we spend probably 50 miles each sunday going to church. We can usually use between 10 and 20 miles on a daily basis but sundays are always 60 to 70. So yeah, brownsville, where the english ward meets is 20 miles one way. and then Los Fresnos, for the spanish isn't quite as far, but it doesn't really matter cause it's still too far to walk. And members are willing to drive the extra out and back to give rides, but not every single week, it adds up. And we don't have enough members with cars to give everyone rides. There's not enough members with cars to give all of the members rides least of all investigators.

What I wish I'd known before my mission as a member is that members have a lot of responsibility in missionary work, more than I thought. I thought it was to give referals and then serve a mission when my time came. But what I wish every member here would do is invite us over to their house to teach their friends and family. Because the work missionaries are supposed to be doing is preparing people for baptism, not running around finding the people who aren't too busy. So I want to leave with you this challenge. To invite the missionaries over for dinner and a lesson with friends/neighbors/family or someone there to listen as well. I know it's kinda a different situation there at home than here. But an example of what I could have done is have my friends come over, Kate, Kaylee, Kelsie, maybe some other friends. But of course the first one. And then we would eat, the missionaries would teach a lesson and then the missionaries go on their way and we go watch a movie or play night games or something like that. You can do a barbque in the back yard, or hay stacks or something. Night games would be perfect afterwards, have a lesson till it's dark enough and all the kids can invite their friends, especially nonmember but members too, just make sure that everyone is going to be paying attention. Just warn the missionaries so that they can come up with an interactive object lesson, or a movie. You can bring in the computer to watch a movie in the front room, etc.

Another thing tell the missionaries that they can bring their investigators for an FHE. This is a commitment. So you need to promise to do it! I know that the instant thought is that there isn't enough time. I know that life is busy. But I also know that being a part of missionary work is neccesary for salvation. :D Ha! that's a guilt tripper, but It's true and I got a quote to prove it as well, it's in PMG. I'll have to tell you next time though. But I also know that just like when you make the time to go to the temple and to read your scriptures you not only find enough time for everything else, but everything else works out better and you're just happier all around!

The commitment is that if you don't do it this week you have to at least make the plans and have them set to do next week. So I'll be expecting a report next monday.

I love you all so very much!

Hermana NJ Nielson

Feb. 1st

Hello everyone! How's it going? Aviana was confirmed yesterday, so that was great! And we had investigators all planned out to come to church, but things didn't work out. Entonces, si. And. . . I don't remember what else happened this week. I ate squid. And. .  I don't know. Both my companion and I were super tired this week. I don't know why, I'm tired all the time but this week was particularly hard. Y, well we created a super great member plan, we haven't got it going completely, but got it started. Remember that Alma and Amulek story? Yeah, did I tell you about how Elder Martino (I think) presented that story? I don't remember. But the moral of the story is that missionaries can try their hardest and be obedient and good and all that and people will still reject them and then the missionaries get super desanimados--don't remember that word-- and then they find a member that likes them and then when the member helps them they can teach the people because the member opens their hearts. Yes, well mi companera y yo are tired of contacting, we don't really like talking to people. That's all we do all day. But we do like teaching people, and talking to members cause they already like us. So our plan is to invite every member to invite a friend--non member or less active-- over to their house for a lesson with us. I think it's great fun. And we want to do it with some of the less actives tambien, depending on where they're at. And, what else. This week, well I don't remember if I told you about Elena, well she went back to Mexico, but her daughter Edna is still here and we're still teaching her. The hard thing is that it's hard to set times with her cause she's not there but when we just show up, she is there. Which is alright except that we want to have members there. But we have spent quite a bit of time the last few weeks with her teaching the first three lessons, and not the commandments yet, particularly the word of wisdom and law of chastity because we felt like she needed a strong testimony of something in one of the first three lessons and even her BD was kinda shaky. But we taught her those two commandments yesterday and she was good with them! ready to change to fix them! It's super great! She has strong desires, and maybe still not a strong testimony of what we're teaching her, but she does the reading and has the desires. We just need to get her to church.

Okay, and did I tell you about Yair? Well we lost him again. I think it's funny considering his name, but at the same time I want to tie the kid up to a pole so he doesn't wander off. We'll find him and hopefully he'll have a phone by then.

I don't remember what else happened. Oh, I feel like an icky wrestler. Once upon a time I was in Southern Texas and the mosquitos decide to pop out everyother day when it's not cold and eat me to pieces. So I was scratching a bit at the thousands of bites on my leg and then looked down and saw that it was red and puffy. So I took extra precaution to not scratch it anymore, but then as the days went on and the mosquito bites stop itching, I notice that the mark is still there. There's actually two, red circles with a red dot in the middle. Dumb! So I feel super yucky, and don't know quite what to do with them other than put antifungal creme on it.

Ha, okay. Sorry. When I e-mail I don't ever know what to tell you so I just write whatever comes to my head. So sorry about that. I guess you can keep track of how sane I am. :D

But I love you!

Con Amor

Hermana NJ Nielson

:P (jan. 27th)

Okay, well hello everybody, lets see if I can remember everything that's happened.

Well, we had a baptism yesterday! Wohoo! it was great. Aviana, I'm not sure if I even mentioned much about her before, sorry. But she is a super sweet girl! she's twelve but she doesn't seem like it. She's a lot more mature. She was actually originally supposed to be baptised in December, way back before I even got here, but things didn't quite work out and we were actually glad because we didn't really feel like she was ready. She is just twelve and there's only her and her mom and her mom isn't interested right now. They had a super hard experience and her mom turned away from God, while Aviana started looking for Him. So she was super prepared, and needed this, but the worry was that we needed her to be ready and strong enough so that she doesn't just go inactive. And while I've been here I've seen her open up and grow so much! And she was baptised yesterday, she was soo happy! She's so cute, she was scared and nervous and so we said a prayer with her just before her baptism, but she was super excited. it was wonderful to see. The baptism itself was really kind of stressfull, because it was stake conference yesterday, and so we had the baptism between the english and spanish sessions, and since President Maulenda was there for stake conference, he went and watched all of the baptisms inbetween. That was great, but it was that there were seven baptisms that happened, two zones in the stake doing baptisms between the conference sessions, so the brownsville zone was second, and started a while after it was supposed to. And we forgot about telling Aviana to bring a towel, etc. Which she was alright with and just went with the flow. But after she got dressed and went back in to where everyone was waiting, we ran to get her jacket cause she was cold, and then when we came back the elders asked us to check on the sister that had just been baptised because she'd been taking a while, but we got in there and asked if there was anything we could do and she said no, she was fine. So we went back and someone mentioned getting a bag for the baptismal clothes, we found a bag but couldn't get the baptismal clothes because the sister was still changing, and another sister came in and was sorta chewing us out for the wet floor in the bathroom, la dada da da. Yup, but our recent convert was changed and basically dry before she got that far, so we were sorta in trouble for the last zone's mess, and we'd felt bad about walking in and out of the room where everyone was waiting, and there wasn't anyone there from the Young Womens to welcome Aviana. So it was a bit stressful, but sweet Aviana was still happy to be there. Woo hoo!

 

Okay, and stake conference was super awesome! there were a bunch of missionary talks which of course I'm all for. Especially for members to hear. Yeah, I realize now that there is a lot that missionaries can't do, where they need help from the members, I wish I knew all this before, although it would have made it hard since I never saw the missionaries. But now that Manti is it's own area . . .

One of the scripture stories was Alma and Amulek, Alma went and did all he could, and he wasn't a bad missionary. But the people wouldn't accept him. It wasn't until he found a member, less active and that less active invited everyone to come and learn untill they were converted and then by then Amulek and member missionary fire! and then they went out to work, but the people still didn't really accept Alma, but it was Amulek who astonished them.

I think it was Elder Martino, (General Authority not a little 18 yr missionary) that was saying that they discovered a statistic. That every one out of 70 people that we talk to will be baptised, so we just need to go talking to a bagillion people, no problem. :D Yeah, but there's a better one, cause I'm actually kinda getting tired of just talking to people. two of every three are baptised when every lesson is taught in the home of a member! The biggest thing we struggle with in this area is getting people to church (as far as rides, for the english ward, the church is 20 miles away!) and friendships, fellowshipping.

If we could go to member's houses every day all day and just teach the people that are already gonna be there, then I'd be the happiest missionary on earth! We talked about how we really don't want "referals" from members. Elder Martino said "don't ask for the addresses of their friends, you don't want them!" Which is super true. We want the members to say "hey, I'm having these friends coming over for dinner and we want you to come eat with us and teach them a lesson!" That's golden, perfect, I'd be happy if there wasn't food too, but it just makes it better. But then having the lessons consistently. I know it's hard. I look back at life at home and I know that there were very rarely nights when everyone was home at the same time consistently. But I also know that the way I've felt with Humberto and Aviana, is completely indescribable and makes up for every heartache, trial, or down moment that I've experienced out here. Yes there are stilll other things that need to be done, but it doesn't take all the time. And you gain a friend!

 

 

Well, that's my admonition. Love you all!

 

Con Amor,

Hermana NJ Nielson

Pos, Hola (Jan.20th)

Well, it doesn't feel like I talked to you very long ago, this week was super fast! we're already half way through the transfer, which means one of us is likely getting transferred particularly because we're in a trio, and apparently trio's hardly ever stay in a trio for more than a transfer (says my district leader last transfer who is in the same trio this transfer :D). But it's super fast.

Well I don't know if I told you about Jerry, but he dropped us this week, which is super hard because it was his mom who encouraged him to make a decision and not investigate anything else, and it's his mom who we found out is a member. She's a recent convert and went LA but nobody ever went to visit her for a super long time, so we didn't even know who she was for a while and so we think she isn't too happy about it. So hopefully we'll be able to slowly soften her heart so that both her and her son can come. Because Jerry honestly knows that the Restoration is true, he's told us that. But he likes his church because of the activities they do. pero si.

Oh, and guess what? There's a less active member, named George. You look at him and you think he's kinda scary looking because he looks like a big tattooed Mexican. Which he is, but he's actually only part Mexican, he's also African American, and Native, and probably a bunch of other stuff too. But everytime we go over there I find out a bunch of different things that I did not expect to learn. He's been all kinds of places. Oh, just this last time he sent home some Jumbalia for us. Yeah, he's from Luisiana! that one city, that's momma's mission which name I cannot remember at this moment. That's where he's from. New Orleans! that's it, and he doesn't like the Princess and the Frog. But He could tell you what the fines are for all kinds of things. It's quite funny how many lessons he learns by paying fines. Like dropping a penny of a bridge or dam, I don't remember the name of that one either, but he told us about how the sign that told you not to drop anything off was huge and he didn't see it and he did it cause no one told him he couldn't and then he found out how big the fine was. So yep it's kinda funny. And then guess what his favorite kind of music is! Country! and he likes operas! He's pretty awesome! The problem is that he just got a job where his boss likes him a whole bunch, (his coworkers don't like him so much for this) so much that he let him set his own schedule, and he asked for Mondays and Tuesdays off, yup he's a stink head.

 

Okay, crazy adventure, mi companeras decided to dye their hair like Amy did with cool aid. I could not, however even if I really wanted to because then I would look like wendy or pippi, or ariel, or any other extrememly red headed character. But it would look a bit more unnatural on me. And I think I like the red that's already in my hair. I think it might actually be getting more red slightly, I don't know. Maybe this summer will turn it blond again. Qien sabe?

 

But we also made a goal to take one picture a day, so that not only do we have more fun, but we also have record of our wonderful missions, and I can actually send you pictures rather than realize I only have pictures you've already seen. So yes.

 

I think there might be something else, but I don't know.

Oh yes, it got messy dying hair.

And we found a goat. 

 

 

The island, and that's the laguna, not the ocean, I still haven't seen it, but I have heard it.

We have matching hair! One of the cutest members ever, Abi, decided to braid mine and sister Bettinson's hair to match Sister Hunt.

And then this is our sunday picnic, after we got dropped by what we thought was a golden investigator, but we're still good, cause we found two super awesome potentials soon after,

There, now you have all my pictures again.

Love You!

Hermana NJ Nielson

 

 

"Bueno, Hola!" (Jan. 13, 2014)

Mire! Mire a nuestro nuevo caro!  Se llama Jeep Jianie. Yup, all the elders are jealous of us. We actually found out that we were gonna get it the night before and so we called our district leader to tell him that we were going to McAllen (we're supposed to ask for permission technically, but mostly just tell them that you need to go) But he asked why were going and Hermana Hunt said " to get our jeep, we're gonna get a jeep" but then he said, "why are you really going to McAllen?" He ligitlly didn't and wouldn't believe us so we told him that we were going to get Hermana Hunt's medical card (for the missionary medical insurance). He accepted that answer and we later found out that he was talking to the zone leaders and said "the sisters told me they were gonna get a jeep, as if I'd believe them" then the zone leader said. "they are getting a jeep." It was pretty legit. Super funny. We honestly did try telling him multiple times, but he didn't want to believe us. But yup, it's a jeep compass 2014. Enserio, a bran new car! with 101 miles on it when we got it! So we were having lots of fun in it. And having fun teasing our district leader with it as well. Oh yes, and I actually drove our old car before we retired it, we did exchanges and Hermana Bettinson went to the STLs area, so I was the senior companion in the area, so I drove, yup and it was super scary and weird, especially cause any time it's been a while since I've driven I start again in Manti, small town that I know super well, but this time it was in a big city (the first time I'd been there in my life), going on the freeway back to our area where I still didn't know where anything was. And on top of that it was dark. (luckily the Port Isabel is the STLs old area).

Oh yes, and those are my companeras in the picture. pos si.

 

I guess I'm done talking about cars now. maybe.

As far as the area, it takes a while for me to know people, I'm still trying to reconect with the area, I feel like I'm doing pretty good since I've only been here for two weeks, but that's a third of the transfer. I don't think I can ever be in an area for only one transfer. I need more time to feel comfortable at all. especially knowing the area. Hermana Bettinson thinks that she's gonna leave and the two of us are gonna stay, pero qien sabe.

 

There's a young man named Jerry (and he has a cat named thomas (tom), ha ha) but we set a BD with him, but then when we were texting him to set up a time we can have another lesson, he told us that he wanted to stick with his church. Well, we had a super boss restoration lesson with him in which he had said that he felt like it was all true, so we are not done with him yet, especially since his mom, we found out, is a member. She's less active, I guess she was offended and I think hurt that no one has come to visit her, and I don't blame her. I feel bad that we didn't know she was a member, we found out when Hermana Young (the STL) pointed at the house and said there was a Less active that lived there, and so we went to visit, but she didn't seem very happy. The second visit was better, we got her to talk about her baptism and she even went and got her pictures to show us.

So we are definately working with this family. I feel like it'll be a one at a time thing, but it's happenin. One problem though, which is very specific to this mission, is that the mom only speaks spanish. So easy peasy we just teach them in spanish right? well kids here grow up speaking spanish, but then when they go to school they learn english (which I think is super awesome and my kids will be bilingual!), but the problem is: some kids prefer one language over the other. There was one family in Edinburg where the kids prefered english and so the parents learned ingles tambien, there's a family here where the kids are good with either, they are teaching their parents english and so their parents understand ingles but can't speak it, but the kids speak both inglish and spanish. Well with Jerry the situation is that he prefers english but will talk to his mom in spanish because she doesn't understand english, but he only wants to talk to us in english. So it's super hard to have a bilingual lesson. Cause he thinks we're only talking to his mom when we talk in spanish, so we have to address him in english, but then his mom is left out of the loop. So, yup. But it'll get there.

 

Anyway, I'm doing great! Hope you all are as well!

Con amor

Hermana NJ Nielson

Two more pitures, this is of the Edinburg Dirty Dozen zone, in seniority order. and The Liga's from Edinburg, can you see the personality of the little boy, Santiago? 

"Guess what?" (Jan. 6, 2014)

I forgot to tell you about New Year's Eve! We got a super awesome special treat! And no, we were not breaking rules, we had permission, the whole mission was doing it, and apparently the APs said it was mandatory.

But we got together as a zone at 6:00 and watched Mulan!! It was great!

Yes, I admit I wish I was with the smaller and more familiar Edinburg Zone, but it was still great. We actually had the options of Mulan, Finding Nemo, and Lion King. I think Edinburg watched Lion King, and since I was getting transferred I didn't get to vote either place, but I was good with anything.

I actually went from the smallest zone to the biggest, so that is one thing I'm struggling with, I don't like big groups very much. But at the same time we don't see them much cause they're far away so it's all good.

Love you!